standstill, raising anxieties that the world is on the verge of a significant slowdown. the japan times is a little more upbeat on the european economy as japan and the eu's free trade pact comes into force today, creating a free trade area that covers about a third of the world's economy. the pact will eliminate tariffs on most reciprocal trade and encourage business investment the paper says in the telegraph business pages, amazon has revealed record profits. the online retail giant said revenues in the final three months of 2018 grew by 20% to $72.4 billion. while the company's profits surpassed $3 billion for the first time. and in the times and many other papers, a uk female graduate who claims she was subjected to a brutal two—hourjob interview, turned down the job offer after branding the experience

humilating, comparing it to being in a room with an abusive ex—boyfriend. olivia bland's letter of refusal of the job offer went viral after she posted it online. with me isjoel kibazo who's partner atjk associates and a former director of communications at africa development bank these numbers that have come out from the institute of directors. any thoughts about fake news or the rest of it. 1200 iod members but this represents about 30,000 firms, medium and small sized firms, and 2996 medium and small sized firms, and 29% of them according to the iod have taken action or they are looking into relocation, mainly looking into relocation, mainly looking to opening offices in the eu. we've heard the likes of sony and panasonic relocating. it's interesting, isn't it, that it's

happening. the institute of directors is a lobby group the business in the united kingdom and the survey is important because part of the debate on brexit has been couched in political terms rather than talking about the hard facts of what could happen in the event of britain crashing out without a deal with the european union. this puts some figures to it to show the extent to which businesses have actually not only thought about it but in some cases, have gone far enough and said they would move headquarters or some of their operations. this is no longerjust an issue about the politics but it really does affect not only business but the thousands of workers who work in these companies and whose livelihoods depend on the jobs they have and that is what is so crucial about this particular story. the

front page of the guardian today, let's talk about a story in the new york times. some stinging words from the americans about what's going on in europe. it's as italy has slipped into recession, europe is essentially at an economic standstill. it's less than ideal timing. this doesn't really surprise us timing. this doesn't really surprise us in terms of italy. since the new government came in, this has been expected. those spending plans are ones which seem to violate european union regulations and laws, to the country has been at loggerheads with the european union. this is the third largest economy in europe. you can see why this matters. triggering

this downturn across the european union and right across europe. crucially on this, they a huge amount of debt: the highest in the world. a prolonged economic slump across italy would significantly go to default. we remember the likes of greece. at the time, the european central bank decided to go on this big stimulus programme and have been enjoying the benefits of that for quite some time. the ecb do not have those tools at their disposal. somebody put it recently that if you thought greece was something, this would be something that is many times more. the situation in greece when they had economic challenges, those fears are actually adding to the gloom that is surrounding italy. hence the story that seems to talk about europe. we do have challenges

in france, challenges in germany. i was in germany earlier this week. i'm not sure the whole of europe is yet into recession. we are not yet there. let's talk about some of the optimism which is being sprinkled across the front pages of the japan times. japan and the eu, the free—trade pact between these two areas, coming into force. six years of negotiations to get us to this point in it covers something like a third of the world economy. that is good news in japan third of the world economy. that is good news injapan is of course the third largest economy in the world, still very important. this story is particularly interesting because in the context of the earlier story we we re the context of the earlier story we were talking about with brexit.

those in favour of brexit have a lwa ys those in favour of brexit have always talked about easy trade deals. this is a classic example that these deals take a long time to negotiate. that is quite quick. frankly, this is the kind of trade the united kingdom might be looking to with the eu post brexit. it is not just a to with the eu post brexit. it is notjust a quick to with the eu post brexit. it is not just a quick fix. to with the eu post brexit. it is notjust a quick fix. let's talk about what is going on with amazon. interesting, it's one of those companies that divides opinion. the daily telegraph, very bullish. they believe in economies of scale. are you a believer in the amazon story? you can not help but believe it. what do you listen to the morning?

bbc, of correct answer. amazon prime of those were watching television, and of course, with a household full of younger daughters, everything they sort of order on line comes through amazon. there is no way you can say, i am a believer in amazon, it is one of the companies of the moment and frankly with things like data, the drone business growing across many markets, there is no way you can't beat. and of course cloud computing. this will continue to grow. not that at the same extent. but actually believe we haven't seen the end of this yet. one person who would be glad to see the back of

this. 0livia bland, it is in the papers today and the times here. 0livia bland who went for a job interview, 22, and suffered some serious you many a share in the hands of craig dean, i don't know if you can see him smirking at the bottom during some business awards, unbelievable. he asked her about her childhood, whether her parents were still together. it was stalking her spotify playlist. why? this guy is a nut. this really does show how responsible all of us have to be when you are interviewing, and acting professionally in a work situation. none of those questions should have been given plus of course, she has the ability to post and show exactly what has happened to her. actually, this is a salutary

lesson for any person employing people to ensure that they play —— behave in the appropriate manner and as much as he tried to fend it off, it's gone viral. 0f as much as he tried to fend it off, it's gone viral. of course she turned down thejob. it's gone viral. of course she turned down the job. not surprising after mr dean called for an underachiever. his excuse was, late night's sleep or something but it does highlight the fact that you can't hide if you behave badly in whatever situation these days. there is nowhere to hide. they give are taking us through the papers. will talk a bit more about amazon in about 15 minutes. hello. there is more snow to come in this forecast as we head into friday. the main focus is a zone, say, from south wales across east anglia and anywhere south of here. all driven by this area of low pressure, which stays close

by as we go into friday. now, whilst the earlier amber warning from the met office has expired, we still have yellow warnings in place for both snow and ice. so, slippery surfaces, tricky travelling conditions. stay up—to—date with the latest travel news on your bbc local radio station. by friday morning, we are likely to see perhaps 5—10 centimetres of snow across parts of wales, south—west england, particularly over the higher ground, up towards the chilterns and the cotswolds. at least a couple of centimetres elsewhere. and we will start to see further sleet and snow showers piling into north—east england. some of those may well get further south and westwards, perhaps down towards the midlands. should be a fine start to the day across northern ireland, but cold and frosty. and a really cold start again across scotland, although not quite as cold as the nightjust gone. and, once again, frequent snow showers piling into north scotland, the highlands and also

the northern ireland. so, as the day wears on on friday, we will keep our zone of snow showers across central and southern england. it will become more fragmented and increasingly sleety through the day. still further snow showers piling into north—east england, across the north york moors. as i mentioned, some of those may just get across the pennines and down towards parts of the midlands. it will be a breezy day in places, particularly the further south you are, so that's just going to exacerbate the cold feel. and, for most, temperatures are not going to get much above three or four celsius. but we should at least see them above freezing across parts of northern england and scotland, where we struggled through thursday with the fog. as we go through friday night and into saturday, we still keep this feed of showers, mainly down eastern and some western coasts. and we start to lose the sleet and snow from south—east england. but a cloudier night here, so temperatures will stay above freezing. elsewhere, further west, under clear skies, getting down to —1 or minus two celsius. still “11 —5 across the highlands of scotland. then we start the weekend, and our area of low pressure moves away into france and germany, and for a brief time through the weekend things are looking drier and quieter. now, with a northerly wind, we are still going to pick up some wintry showers down some eastern coasts.

a few mayjust clip some western coast, but for most on saturday it's a dry day, with some crisp winter sunshine. after a frosty start, temperatures getting up to between 3—5 celsius, perhaps 6—7 across south—west england. so, to sum up the weekend, it's going to stay cold, there will be some sunshine, further wintry showers and perhaps we could see some rain later on sunday, with some snow across scotland. bye— bye. good morning, welcome to breakfast, with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. 0ur headlines today: heavy snow sweeps across the uk, leaving hundreds of people stranded on roads in cornwall and devon. from getting stuck at 4pm this afternoon, it is now 1:24am in the morning, we haven't seen any gritters, we haven't seen any snowploughs, the traffic is blocking all of the lanes, they were

abandoned cars, people leaving their cars. an new amber warning for snow across the thames valley is in place and there's warning of major rush hour disruption. good morning. it has been a bitterly cold night. we have had heavy snowfall and we have a lot